


Pencil Sketches

by bunnsart (bunn)



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Art, Gen, Made for Festival of Lights : Hanukkah, Pencil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27916249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunn/pseuds/bunnsart
Summary: Four (so far) pencil character sketches made to prompts for the 2020 Festival of Lights.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 46
Collections: Festival of Lights Fest





	Pencil Sketches

**1\. prompt :Victory against difficult odds**

If there's one character in the Silmarillion who succeeds against near-impossible odds, it's surely Eärendil. Born in the last years of the secret city of Gondolin, he saw his home fall to an unstoppable force of Balrogs, dragons and other horrors, and escaped with his parents aged only ten to the secret Havens at the mouths of the River Sirion. It must have seemed no more than a temporary refuge : Morgoth had conquered the rest of Beleriand, all the great cities and mighty armies were gone, Gil-galad the last High King was himself a refugee hiding on the Isle of Balar, and Eärendil grew up to be the leader of a people living on borrowed time.

His grandfather Turgon had sent many ships into the West, begging for help from Valinor, and none of them had succeeded. None the less Eärendil continued to try to find a way to Valinor. He finally succeeded after Elwing brought him the Silmaril - along with the news that his home and their twin children were lost. And even in Valinor, it was unclear at first if the Valar would help them, or simply kill them for breaking the law. But the Valar did choose to aid them. Eärendil himself struck one of the great final blows of the War of Wrath, slaying Ancalagon the Black, greatest of dragons.

So here he is, about to succeed one more time against impossible odds. If you take a look around the Silmaril, you can just see the remnants of the great necklace of the Nauglamir that the gem is still set into. Choosing to combine these two great works of art, the necklace taken from a dragon's hoard, was the death of Thingol, but Eärendil seems able to survive all forms of bad luck.

[ ](https://victoriaclare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/DSC5061.jpg)

  
**2\. prompt :Gambling games**

**Fingon and Maedhros**

I have a firm conviction that Fingon and Maedhros have an ongoing commitment to any number of dangerous games, and this, involving using a very sharp knife flung wildly in the air in place of a spinning dreidel, is one of them. Both of them are using their left hands here: Maedhros because he has no option, and Fingon because Maedhros is. I [tried painting](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/bunn/5531459/622818/622818_800.jpg) this scene from my story [Golden Light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10021043) three years ago and I hope my drawing has improved since - so here is another attempt at it.

[ ](https://victoriaclare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/DSC5060.jpg)

  
**3\. prompt :Candlelight**

This is a young Elrond (definitely book, not movie), reading a book by candle-light. In my mind, he is re-reading Elemmírë’s Tales of the Journeying, a book that was originally owned by Celebrimbor and left behind in the dwarf-city of Belegost during a visit, where Elrond and Elros found it later. Elrond re-read it a lot in my story[Mind's Delight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20823125), which is about Elrond, Elros and Maglor in Belegost as the twins were growing up.

[ ](https://victoriaclare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/DSC5057.jpg)

  
**4\. prompt : Oil and/or fried foods**

**Celebrian's Store-cupboard.**

I see Elrond's wife Celebrian as someone who deliberately distanced herself from her mother's adventurous, somewhat ambitious personality by deliberately focussing on more peaceful and domestic arts, particularly cookery. Which is not to say that Celebrian doesn't have the passion and the power of her mother and her uncles, she just employs it differently. So, here she is, choosing one of her many different bottles of oil for the recipe she is about to prepare. 

(Elrond, of course, who has essentially been at war since he was six and never had the option of choosing to bake biscuits rather than fight battles, thinks she is amazing. She will eventually teach him everything she knows about healing, and together they will make many new discoveries in the field of healing.)


End file.
